Two articles on religious programming in Arabic on Islam are out this week:
The New York Times profiles Saudi moderate host Ahmad al Shugairi
and
the Los Angeles Times profiles Egyptian moderate Mostafa Hosni.
Both pieces are concerned with a. highlighting a trend within the Arab world toward using television as a religious outreach tool, which, as a highly demand-driven medium, has produced some programming oriented toward making Islam appealing and cool and b. contesting the idea of a Muslim religious figure preaching hatred for the West and jihad (and all of those negative stereotypes about leaders within Islam) as the only type of Muslim religious leader.
Neither article really addresses questions of content. Though the so-called satellite sheikhs clearly address their audiences in a non-traditional manner, how non-traditional (or how Western) are the answers they offer to resolving the questions that inevitably arise when one attempts to live his or her life as a devout Muslim? And, furthermore, though this certainly isn't a question to be resolved in an 800 word newspaper article, does it matter? Does presenting an imperative such as all women should veil in an angry way constitute something more problematic from a foreign policy standpoint than does presenting the same idea in a softer, more sympathetic, relatable style? Does it prompt different attitudes among viewers? It's an interesting question, to me at least.
Regardless, these two articles certainly complement one another and underline the visibility of this trend in the region.